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INTRODUCTION
This Blog is dedicated to making public some of the business activities and methods of Liam Collins, David Bone Jr and their associates. In the spring of 2010, the present authors invested in Collins & Bone (C&B), who were offering an enticing 8-10% interest on the basis of buying houses for cash, renovating them and letting them out to students. We were assured that our money was secured against houses that they owned, including their own homes and the properties held by their associated company, Castle & Gatehouse (C&G). We have emails and brochures that confirm these details, as do others who invested on this same basis at around the same time. The idea worked for us for over a year, then in November 2011 they told us they were insolvent. They refused our every request for clear accounts, which led us to suspect wrongdoing. We began an investigation and then started this Blog. We found our suspicions confirmed: other investors had lost sometimes quite large amounts to C&B and its predecessor CBS, and all requests for repayment were adamantly refused. These people use and have used so many names that we found it necessary to compress them into CoBo (for Collins & Bone) and Coboco (for the whole bunch of them – there are quite a few!) Note that there is an index in the margin at the right hand side.

Sunday 18 May 2014

DAVID BONE JR STILL BENEFITS FROM THREE C&B HOUSES!

A CBS investor has brought it to our attention that three properties disappeared without trace from CoBo's asset list between 2009 and 2012. They are:

2 Abbeycroft Close, Astley, Tyldesley, Manchester M29 7JT

56 Beckford Court, Tyldesley, Manchester M29 8GF

24 Carnarvon Road, Preston PR1 8PU.

Research has shown that David Bone Jr is benefitting from all three properties in terms of accommodation and rental income.

Abbeycroft Close is a 4-bedroomed house, built in 2004 and acquired by Collins & Bone for £270,000 in October 2007.  Zoopla currently values it at £263,972, so it is just within the bounds of negative equity.  As far as we know, David Bone Jr lives there with his wife and child.

Beckford Court is a 2-bedroomed flat and CoBo used it as a Manchester office for CBS and Collins & Bone. It was purchased in July 2007 for £127,950. Zoopla's current valuation is £111,898. It is estimated to have a rental value of £568 per calendar  month.

Carnarvon Road is a 3-bedroomed terrace house, purchased by CoBo in February 2008 for £110,000. Zoopla values it at £124,668. This property was put in the name of Rachael Stanley, David Bone Jr's wife. Its estimated value as a rental is £773 pcm.

It is clearly unfair, to put it mildly, that David Bone Jr should still have charge of three properties and an income from renting out two of them when some bona fide investors have actually lost their homes or had to sell them because of money lost through CoBo's swindling. We have made sure the authorities know about these properties because it is extremely unlikely that David Bone Jr would inform them about the benefits or income he gets from them.